1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to the repair of tissue using biocompatible fillers. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to applicators and/or applicator tips for applying the biocompatible fillers to tissue defects.
2. Background of Related Art
Materials and methods for effecting tissue repair are known. Such methods use biocompatible materials to provide stability, allow for tissue ingrowth and/or replace damaged tissue at a target site. The biocompatible material may include cells harvested from the patient, from another person and/or from another species. Additionally, or in the alternative, such materials may be synthetic. For example, commonly owned U.S. application Ser. No. 12/778,256, filed May 12, 2010, the content of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses methods and devices for treating osteochondral defects using biphasic plugs. For ease of application, many filler materials are applied in a liquid or viscous form, and require time and/or exposure to energy, i.e., light, to harden and/or polymerize.
Applicators for mixing and dispensing these biocompatible materials used in tissue repair are also known. Such applicators are configured to mix and/or dispense one or more materials and may be configured to discharge the material(s) as a spray or stream to a target site. The viscous consistency of the material when first dispensed from the applicator requires that the target site be horizontally positioned such that the material remains within the target site until hardened. Because the target site may be oriented in a limitless number of configurations, positioning a patient such that the target site is horizontal may be difficult, time consuming, costly and/or put the patient in a compromising position.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to have a system for tissue repair in which the target site does not need to be maintained in a horizontal positioned during the application of a material.